What does pretense mean?
Definitions for pretense
prɪˈtɛns, ˈpri tɛnspre·tense
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word pretense.
Princeton's WordNet
pretense, pretence, pretending, simulation, feigningnoun
the act of giving a false appearance
"his conformity was only pretending"
pretense, pretence, feigning, dissemblingnoun
pretending with intention to deceive
pretense, pretence, make-believenoun
imaginative intellectual play
pretension, pretense, pretencenoun
a false or unsupportable quality
guise, pretense, pretence, pretextnoun
an artful or simulated semblance
"under the guise of friendship he betrayed them"
Wiktionary
pretensenoun
A false or hypocritical profession, as, under pretense of friendliness.
pretensenoun
Intention or purpose not real but professed.
without pretense of accuracy
pretensenoun
An unsupported claim made or implied.
pretensenoun
An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.
Etymology: From pretensse, from prætensus, past participle of prætendere, from præ- + tendere; see pretend.
ChatGPT
pretense
Pretense is an attempt to make something appear true or real when it is not, often to deceive or impress others. It can refer to a false display of feelings, attitudes, or intentions or an insincere or false claim. It may also refer to an act of pretending or make-believe.
Webster Dictionary
Pretensenoun
alt. of Pretence
Wikidata
Pretense
The Tollan put Skaara and Klorel on trial to determine who will control the host body.
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Pretense
Same as Pretence.
Suggested Resources
Pretense
Pretence vs. Pretense -- In this Grammar.com article you will learn the differences between the words Pretence and Pretense.
Matched Categories
Usage in printed sourcesFrom:
- [["1563","1"],["1579","2"],["1581","1"],["1607","2"],["1659","3"],["1667","1"],["1670","40"],["1673","1"],["1675","1"],["1681","2"],["1683","3"],["1685","2"],["1691","1"],["1693","1"],["1701","57"],["1703","2"],["1710","12"],["1711","21"],["1712","2"],["1713","3"],["1714","1"],["1715","1"],["1716","2"],["1717","5"],["1718","1"],["1722","100"],["1724","6"],["1725","3"],["1726","3"],["1727","6"],["1728","1"],["1729","28"],["1730","9"],["1731","1"],["1732","1"],["1734","1"],["1735","3"],["1736","3"],["1737","5"],["1738","23"],["1739","1"],["1743","2"],["1744","20"],["1746","3"],["1747","1"],["1750","1"],["1751","1"],["1752","2"],["1753","3"],["1755","6"],["1757","1"],["1758","1"],["1759","1"],["1763","1"],["1764","17"],["1765","6"],["1766","18"],["1767","1"],["1768","1"],["1770","1"],["1771","1"],["1772","2"],["1774","6"],["1775","2"],["1776","9"],["1777","3"],["1778","15"],["1781","2"],["1783","4"],["1784","2"],["1785","17"],["1786","2"],["1787","5"],["1788","5"],["1790","2"],["1793","1"],["1794","1"],["1795","1"],["1796","1"],["1799","2"],["1800","21"],["1801","3"],["1802","5"],["1803","4"],["1804","4"],["1805","4"],["1806","2"],["1807","7"],["1808","12"],["1809","13"],["1810","5"],["1811","4"],["1812","11"],["1813","4"],["1814","2"],["1816","4"],["1817","4"],["1818","3"],["1819","14"],["1820","2"],["1822","9"],["1823","15"],["1824","8"],["1825","2"],["1826","12"],["1827","9"],["1828","3"],["1829","4"],["1830","21"],["1831","35"],["1832","30"],["1833","15"],["1834","24"],["1835","54"],["1836","19"],["1837","17"],["1838","43"],["1839","16"],["1840","26"],["1841","43"],["1842","66"],["1843","41"],["1844","48"],["1845","32"],["1846","72"],["1847","144"],["1848","222"],["1849","396"],["1850","313"],["1851","456"],["1852","423"],["1853","288"],["1854","356"],["1855","720"],["1856","1140"],["1857","631"],["1858","554"],["1859","822"],["1860","736"],["1861","356"],["1862","219"],["1863","357"],["1864","533"],["1865","415"],["1866","467"],["1867","472"],["1868","660"],["1869","725"],["1870","452"],["1871","689"],["1872","574"],["1873","625"],["1874","898"],["1875","879"],["1876","986"],["1877","869"],["1878","1148"],["1879","832"],["1880","1410"],["1881","1001"],["1882","971"],["1883","1111"],["1884","1482"],["1885","1779"],["1886","1177"],["1887","1222"],["1888","1248"],["1889","1096"],["1890","1386"],["1891","1186"],["1892","1802"],["1893","1510"],["1894","1359"],["1895","1483"],["1896","1870"],["1897","2047"],["1898","2383"],["1899","2928"],["1900","2878"],["1901","2755"],["1902","2063"],["1903","2379"],["1904","2345"],["1905","2423"],["1906","2392"],["1907","2543"],["1908","2970"],["1909","2543"],["1910","2764"],["1911","3157"],["1912","3049"],["1913","3011"],["1914","3282"],["1915","3303"],["1916","3503"],["1917","3189"],["1918","2900"],["1919","3489"],["1920","3483"],["1921","3063"],["1922","3790"],["1923","2581"],["1924","2577"],["1925","2652"],["1926","2464"],["1927","2885"],["1928","2868"],["1929","3145"],["1930","2787"],["1931","2999"],["1932","2609"],["1933","2166"],["1934","2407"],["1935","3276"],["1936","2809"],["1937","3067"],["1938","3044"],["1939","3573"],["1940","3673"],["1941","3246"],["1942","3018"],["1943","2461"],["1944","2319"],["1945","2424"],["1946","2868"],["1947","3878"],["1948","3555"],["1949","3733"],["1950","3740"],["1951","4032"],["1952","3914"],["1953","3455"],["1954","4037"],["1955","3923"],["1956","3656"],["1957","4052"],["1958","4511"],["1959","4670"],["1960","5093"],["1961","5606"],["1962","5864"],["1963","6160"],["1964","6045"],["1965","7186"],["1966","6735"],["1967","7616"],["1968","8160"],["1969","8092"],["1970","8339"],["1971","8487"],["1972","7877"],["1973","8109"],["1974","8013"],["1975","7379"],["1976","7439"],["1977","7874"],["1978","7381"],["1979","8290"],["1980","8254"],["1981","7923"],["1982","8207"],["1983","9861"],["1984","8968"],["1985","9691"],["1986","10341"],["1987","10156"],["1988","10862"],["1989","11372"],["1990","12219"],["1991","12688"],["1992","13632"],["1993","13867"],["1994","14336"],["1995","15238"],["1996","15556"],["1997","15475"],["1998","16592"],["1999","17854"],["2000","19669"],["2001","21370"],["2002","22248"],["2003","22997"],["2004","24831"],["2005","25215"],["2006","26100"],["2007","28503"],["2008","34892"]]
Anagrams for pretense »
Petersen
preteens
pre-teens
terpenes
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of pretense in Chaldean Numerology is: 1
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of pretense in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3
Examples of pretense in a Sentence
Now it was pretty clear to me what was happening. The setup of the dinner, both the physical layout of the private meal and Trump’s pretense that he had not already asked me to stay on multiple occasions, convinced me this was an effort to establish a patronage relationship.
Could it be that nothing can truly make people long for 'anything' or 'anybody' anymore? Is everybody invading the catwalk of superficiality and acquiring artificial gadgets to create a pretense of desire? Have they, really, ended up in a twilight of desire? ( "Crépuscule du désir" )
Pretense cannot sustain blind power.
The demands that Russia put on the table were beyond excessive, they were, of course, nonstarters, and what we've seen repeatedly is that Russia goes through the pretense of diplomacy to distract and continue on its aggressive path.
Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy hypocrisy.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
References
Translations for pretense
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
Get even more translations for pretense »
Translation
Find a translation for the pretense definition in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Citation
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"pretense." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 21 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/pretense>.
Discuss these pretense definitions with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In